1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and a method which provide services such as repair charge estimation and software upgrading with the use of an IC card containing data on electronic money and on the internal status of machines including PCs and household electrical appliances.
2. Description of Related Art
When a personal computer or a household electrical appliance fails, the user normally takes it to an electrical appliances store or a manufacturer's service center to ask for an estimate of repair charges. In this case, the user must bring the failed computer or appliance to the store or the center himself, or ask a transportation company to transport it. This is very troublesome. In addition, as electrical appliances have become more and more sophisticated recently, it sometimes takes a long time to find the cause of a failure or to make an estimate of repair charges.
On the other hand, the introduction of an electronic purse system using an IC card, as described in Japanese Patent Publication Kokai JP-A No. Hei 3-92966, is now under study. This system utilizes an IC card which contains memory, into which information on a specified amount of money is stored. At the time of payment, the required amount data read from the IC card is transmitted, to complete a transaction without using money. The IC card used with this system can store not only electronic money data but various other types of data.